Cope must rein in the spoilers

And then the ANC begat Cope which begat Cope-Lite and Cope-Cherry which all got into a Bugatti and flew overseas to spend their parliamentary allowance at Euro Disney before returning home to rejoin the ANC, DA or a partridge in a pear tree.

When the Congress of the People party was formed in 2008 by Mosiuoa Lekota, Mbhazima Shilowa and Mluleki George, it was to offer people a black-led multiracial alternative in the 2009 general election. Many believed that it offered the country its first viable opposition to the ANC one-party state and would fill a major lacuna for black middle-class voters.

This view was enhanced by its credible showing during the elections where it polled 7.42% share of the vote.

Though many were concerned that its policies were almost the same as that of the ANC — even its name being derived from the 1955 Congress of the People — this was not considered fatal owing to the fact that the longer the party remained independent the bigger the gap between the policies of the two parties would become.

This would cement Cope’s unique identity and lay the foundation for attracting voters across a broad spectrum.

Unfortunately, after a very promising start, things have deteriorated quickly with factionalism — thought to have been an ANC malady best left behind — manifesting itself in a big way.

Lekota and Shilowa bringing their version of the Zuma versus Mbeki squabble to the fledgling party.

At a critical time in their development, when Cope should have been kicking on from a useful first showing at the elections, the party is bogged down with in-fighting and worse, in the case of Lekota, airing their dirty laundry in public.

As a result whatever gains that were made in terms of being the fresh new kid on the block are being flushed down the toilet in the pathetic sacrifice-all game that is being played to become the next president of the party. Whoever achieves that honour will undoubtedly find that it is as head of a vastly reduced support base.

It’s got to the point of drawing up a “worst-case scenario” document which was handed to the media by Cope staffers on Wednesday. The document outlines what steps would be taken should the movement find itself breaking up after the conference as some are mooting.

Should this prove to be the case the new parties that arise out of Cope will quickly find themselves dead in the water in terms of anything like a material support base.

As things stand Cope is losing support due to its inability to shake off the election hangover and start generating positive visibility and new policies that capture the imagination of the electorate. Instead all people are seeing is grown men fighting over an ever-decreasing pie.

Should those same men, who left the ANC to form Cope, now leave Cope to form Can’t-Cope — or whatever else they want to call themselves — they will soon find that the public has seen and heard enough of them.

Instead of pioneers they will be regarded as spoilers who just can’t get along with anyone and — heaven forbid they should ever get into government — not to be trusted with running a conference never mind a country. Their stint in the wilderness will make Moses’ 40 years in the desert seem like a stroll around the block.

Cope have only one choice and that is to rein in the spoilers and marginalise them permanently before the country does the same to them.